Biography

Spike Lee, born Shelton Jackson Lee on March 20, 1957 in Atlanta, Georgia, is an American filmmaker and actor. Lee's family relocated to New York City when he was still a child. He would go on to attend school at Morehouse College and New York University. Lee made…more

Spike won the annual George Polk Award for his documentary on life in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. His documentary, When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts was specifically honored, for illustrating the evidence of the government's poor performance in the aftermath of the August 2005 storm.

Spike was the executive producer on the 1995 film New Jersey Drive, which showed young black auto thieves in northern New Jersey. At the time, the city of Newark had the highest automobile theft rate in the country, and Newark Mayor Sharpe James refused to allow spike to film within city limits. Years later in the contested 2002 Newark mayoral campaign, Lee endorsed James' opponent, Cory Booker.

Spike was criticized for encouraging young black students to skip school and go see his movie Malcom X. Ten years later, after headline-grabbing remarks made by Mississippi Senator Trent Lott regarding Strom Thurmond's failed attempt at the Presidency, Lee ranted that Lott was a 'Card carrying member of the Klu Klux Klan' on ABC's Good Morning America.

Spike was in the center of controversy after he directed the commercials for Nike, when violence broke out in inner cities involving the killings of young men for their Air Jordans. He called for a change of the conditions that made a kid put so much value on a pair of sneakers.

Spike was lead down a second career avenue after he was noticed by marketing executives from Nike, when they saw him in She's Gotta Have It. They offered him a job directingcommercials that featured Lee's character from the movie, the Michael Jordon-loving Mars Blackmon, with Jordan himself as their Air-Jordan line.

Spike started to work on his first feature film, She's Gotta Have It in 1985. The budget was a slim $160,000, and shooting was finished up in two weeks. The film was released in 1986, and grossed over $7,000,000 at the United States boxoffice.

Spike took film courses at Clark Atlanta University, and graduated with a B.A. in Mass Communication from Morehouse College. He then enrolled in New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, graduating in 1982, with a Master of Fine Arts.

Spike and his family moved to Brooklyn when he was a small child. He attended John Dewey High School, and after graduation he enrolled in Morehouse College where he made his first student film, Last Hustle in Brooklyn.

Quotes

[On Will Smith saying he doesn't have a broad vision]Spike Lee: The reason I was so mad at that statement was that it seemed to me that Will was just saying something the studio told him. You know, 'So, what about Spike [to direct Ali]?' And they go, 'Well, he's not that broad,' and then he comes back to me and says the same thing they said. That's why I was mad.

Spike Lee: People are getting tired of seeing TV shows remade, or movies from the 1950s, and comic books, and sequels. People say, well, it can't be the films; it's the video games, it's the 900 channels, it's this and that. All those things are a factor, but I think the biggest factor is that films aren't connecting with the audience. I mean, look. March of the Penguins. How much did that movie make? If there were good movies in the theater, they're not going to see a documentary about penguins.

Spike Lee: Most people think that it was Katrina that brought about the devastation to New Orleans. But it was a breaching of the levees that put 80 percent of the city under water. It was not the hurricane.

Spike Lee: I dislike Condoleezza Rice more than Bush. The thing about it is that she's gotten a free ride from black people. I know you [Condoleezza Rice] love your Ferragamo shoes, but come on. While people were drowning in New Orleans, she was going up and down Madison Ave. buying Ferragamo shoes. Then she went to see Spamalot.

From: August 25, 2006Spike Lee: It's not just a black/white thing. I think class has a lot to do with it, too. Because, it's funny, I was in Venice when all of this was happening. But when I got to New Orleans, I was amazed to see St. Bernard's Parish got demolished just as much as the Lower 9th Ward, but they never showed the St. Bernard's Parish on television.

Spike is That Dude

I Love all of Spike Lee Movies they all send a message out and that's what I like anything that can send a good message out to the people is alright with me I feel that he still doesn't get that much shine as he deserves though because he works real hard on every movie production or whatever he does He tells the truth in all of his movies and he keeps it real he doesn't sugar code anything that's what makes him and made him what he is today much love to the great man Spike Leemoreless

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